(2 min/35mm)
Music kindly provided by
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1.0 | A
country sunrise.
- Music starts: Depeche Mode’s - Uselink, ULTRA, Mute Records
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1.1 |
Dissolve into the sleep-rich face of the Man opening his eyes in bed; his arm going over instantly and landing on the alarm clock just in time for it to emit a small ‘chirp’. Now he sits at the side of his bed in a posture familiar to any workhorse of the present. He is in his late twenties to mid thirties, single and still healthy but clearly drained and ambiguous as to what drives him on to work so incessantly.
Now he faces the bathroom mirror and stares into his eyes while the shower heats-up beside him. “One day I’ll have that house in the country.”
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1.2 | -10.5 seconds into music - Steam rolls over the glass as we
dissolve into another bathroom, this
time the Woman’s.
Morning sun is glaring into her
impatient face after she rounds the
hood, reaches the door, and makes to
enter the vehicle.
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1.3 | - 21 seconds -
Apparently, we couldn’t have come at a better time, and slowly he begins to smile. He turns to his wife.
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2.0 | - 31 seconds - - 42 seconds -
Apologizing profusely, he retrieves her collection pot and turns immediately away from her simple, thankful face as if in anticipation of what might come next. We see her looking after him as he comes barreling towards us and the escalators, glancing quickly down at his watch but reading nothing.
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2.1 | - 52 seconds - Madness and automaton: quick shots of a
homeless man coughing, crowds jostling,
cyclists wearing breathing masks, and
another charity collector being swamped
by a swarming, apathetic work force. “AFFORDABLE FINANCING FOR YOUR DREAMS!” With the blasé satisfaction of someone who believes herself to already be in possession of everything she could possibly want, save time, the Woman rolls down her window.
It is hot outside and, as if in
confirmation, over her radio we’ve been
hearing (since the 52-second mark) the
voice of a beleaguered caller on a radio
show. He says there's no way to stop the
streams and ground water from becoming
contaminated from the toxins in the
gulf, and that "all it will take is for
the weather to keep heating the water
until the next hurrica-"... Oil droplets drip, drip, drip, in rapid succession, from the tip of another shaking tail pipe.
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2.2 | - 62 seconds -
His expression remains largely indiscernible, possibly threatening.
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3.0 | Cut to a wide external view of a
frenzied downtown metro/subway station. “White man works his whole life just so one day he can go fish.”
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3.1 | The Woman is pulling into a large,
multi-story, parking garage. - 90 seconds -
The sound this makes reverberates as we spin up and around her to reveal her shock at suddenly finding herself, and her SUV, alone – on top of an enormous, but desolate, crumbling iceberg in the ocean.
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3.2 | Now we see the Man standing to
attention as the elevator reaches his
floor with a ‘bing’. The doors slide
open as he steps out towards us and
freezes in his tracks.
- The reverberation of the car door comes to a halt with another slam / thud. Music ends. -
Blackness…
- Slowly we begin to hear the sound of running water -
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3.3 | A beautiful riverbank where the Indian
is handing his son the spear he just
carved before us.
“We just go fish.”
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4.0 |
Fade in of the words, “Alternatives Exist”…
One or two seconds pass, then the letters begin to gently fly about and reposition themselves in front of us, ultimately forming, “SleepingNatives.org”.
Credits
Special Thanks to JD Fanger, Depeche Mode, and Mute Records Artwork by Ted Boonthanakit
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